This invention relates generally to medication preparation and delivery devices and, more particularly, to a pill splitting apparatus having two or more moveable/dynamic clamping members that serve to position a pill/tablet or similar object into a desired position and that serve to hold the pill/tablet of any size and shape while a plunger assembly having one or more blades is firmly actuated so as to sever the pill into a predetermined number of pieces of uniform size.
Caregivers such as nurses in facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes often have need to split a pill into two halves, four quarters, or the like in that the patient may be found to tolerate smaller doses at a time. This would especially be necessary if the medication is not manufactured in the fractional dosage or is simply not immediately available.
Pill splitting devices are generally known for cutting pill-form medications into pieces by forcing a blade downwardly against a pill. Although presumably effective for their general purposes, the existing devices and proposals sometimes result in pieces that are not severed uniformly or completely in that the pill is not held securely in position and in that the pill is not accurately positioned so the pills center coincide with the center of the cutting blade/blades.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a pill splitting apparatus having two or more moveable/dynamic clamping members that are manually or automatically urged together to hold a pill in a centered and stable position prior to being severed. In addition, it would be desirable to have a pill splitting apparatus having a plunger assembly with interchangeable cutting portions that may be actuated to split a pill into predetermined uniformed pieces, and to give the user the option to replace the cutting portion with a newer one once the blade/blades are worn out.